Delusions of Immortality
by whiteraven1606
Summary: Methos was sure he'd never met so many crazy people before Duncan barged into his life.


Methos was going to kill someone, just as soon as he got himself out of these nylon ropes. Carefully testing the strength of the ropes, Methos watched the crazy idiot that had captured him dump a man on the floor.

"There." The crazy man squatted just outside of Methos' spitting range. "You doing okay, Watcher?" The guy produced a bottle of water. "Need some water? I know mortals get thirsty fast."

Methos shook his head before stilling. He cleared his throat and jerked his chin at the new body on the floor. "Who's he?"

With a manic grin, the crazy bastard turned and kicked the body over onto its back. "He's my challenger. As soon as he revives I'm going to fight him." The man turned back towards Methos. "You'll be my Watcher, right?"

Blinking, because the man on the floor was clearly breathing and definitely wasn't Immortal, Methos just nodded. "What's your name? I can't write your Chronicle without your name."

"Willis." The guy shoved the body with his foot and huffed out an impatient breath. "Later."

Methos watched Willis go up the stairs and listened to the bolts throw. "Hey." If only the man had been pushed a little closer. "Hey, mister."

A groan came from the man and he failed one arm a little. Methos strained against his ropes.

"Come on. Wake up. He's not here right now."

"Owww."

Methos thumped the heel of his boot against the floor. "Hey!"

The guy sat up and then fell right back down. "Rossi?"

"No. I'm Adam." Methos watched the guy roll slowly onto his side. "Can you move faster? I want loose before Willis comes back."

The guy worked his way slowly into a sitting position. "Willis?"

"Yeah. The crazy bloody bastard that thinks he killed you." Methos silently urged the man to move faster.

"He nearly did." The man started to drag himself over to Methos. He looked groggy and Methos wondered if he'd been hit with the same taser as Methos or something else. The guy finally reached Methos' feet and stopped breathing heavily. "He have...anyone..."

"Your Rossi?" Methos shook his head as the guy looked up and gulped air, trying to catch his breath. "No. He just had you."

The guy nodded and grimaced as he pulled himself closer. "Hotch. I'm an FBI agent."

Methos cursed in his head and tried to support Hotch with his knee as the man tried to move. "Working a case?" Methos glanced up as the floorboards over them creaked.

Hotch looked up as well before pulling himself the last few inches and starting to run his hands over Methos' restraints. "Serial killer. He's been beheading people. Seemed random." Hotch dropped his head to the floor and coughed. Hotch began trying to get the ropes loose. "You?"

Methos tried to stay still as Hotch pulled the ropes tighter as he worked. Methos started to answer, but the bolt of the door was thrown and Hotch jerked back. As the second blot was thrown, Hotch collapsed as Methos' feet and lay still.

* * *

Duncan was getting frantic as he and Joe searched for Methos with no results.

Joe watched as Duncan's driving grew worse. "You sure you didn't just make him mad enough to walk instead of taking his car?"

"Without his sword or his gun?"

"Right. He's not that stupid." Joe motioned Duncan to stop. "Wait, that alley."

Duncan threw the car into reverse and backed up so they could see down the alley. There was a body lying half-hidden by a dumpster. With a curse, Duncan turned them down the alley. Joe levered himself out of the car as Duncan turned over the man. It wasn't Methos and he still had his head attached. Duncan rifled through his pockets as Joe looked around.

"Joe." Duncan was looking up at him with a grim expression as he held out the man's credentials. Joe moved closer to read that the man was FBI.

"Damn." Joe flipped open his phone and dialed.

Duncan tried to make the man more comfortable as Joe spoke to the dispatcher. They hovered until several cars screeched to a halt at the mouth of the alley. Several people hurried towards them. Duncan moved to allow the dark-haired woman to take his place at the downed man's side.

"Rossi?" She patted his cheek, but the man didn't rouse. She looked up at them. "Have you seen another man, SSA Hotchner? He was with Rossi."

Duncan shook his head. "No, sorry." He held out his hand to the man who was looking them over with the eye of a practiced law enforcement officer. "I'm Duncan MacLeod and this is Joe Dawson."

The leader, Morgan, introduced the rest, the woman, Prentiss glancing up from Rossi when her name was given. They spread out as Morgan asked again about their missing man.

Joe leaned against the hood of their car. "Didn't see anyone else." He pointed with his cane. "That doesn't look too good though."

The tall lanky one who'd said his name was Reid was already standing over the drag marks. "These are fresh. At least Hotch wasn't bleeding much." The young man grimaced as he looked at the others.

Duncan waited for them to accuse him and Joe of being involved, but they didn't. Rossi was loaded into a waiting ambulance and the woman, Prentiss climbed in as well. As the doors closed, she told Morgan she'd call when Rossi woke.

Morgan turned back towards them as the ambulance started to pull away. "It is pretty late for you to be in this part of town."

Duncan rubbed the back of his neck. "We were looking for a friend."

Joe pushed off the car. "You're after that guy beheading people, right?"

Duncan turned his head to look at Joe as Reid moved closer. Morgan nodded and then turned slightly away from them as his phone rang. He moved off slightly as he answered. Reid slid into the empty space he left.

"Have you tried your friend's phone?"

Duncan let Joe talk to Reid as he listened to Morgan's side of the phone call.

Morgan turned back towards them as he flipped his phone closed. "Garcia says the killings can't be all one person."

Reid blinked. "What did she find?"

Morgan started to answer, but he stopped and titled his head towards Joe. "What's that?"

Joe looked down at his small Watcher tattoo. "Uhmm."

* * *

Methos tried to talk Willis into leaving Hotch alone. "He isn't Immortal, Willis." He tried to get Willis to look at him, which wasn't working very well.

Willis frowned and shoved Hotch's foot with his own. "He died. I killed him and he came back. That's Immortal."

Methos tried to point with his chin. "His head wound is still bleeding. He's just human, Willis." Methos nudged Willis' foot with his toe. "Please, Willis, just let him go and I'll help you find a real Immortal." Methos was sure Duncan wouldn't mind being bait.

Willis knelt down in front of him and frowned. "Watchers don't interfere."

Wishing he knew where Willis had gotten all of his information, Methos nodded. "Right, I wouldn't interfere with your Challenge. Just help you find an Immortal. That's all."

With a nod, Willis stood back up and kicked Hotch in the calf. "Mortal."

Methos kicked Willis in the side of his foot as hard as he could manage from his position. "Hey!" As Willis turned his anger on him, Methos gritted his teeth as his leg broke from the repeated attacks.

* * *

Garcia had called Kevin in to help her when she started finding reports as far back as World War I. She glared at the screen that still said Hotch's phone wasn't connected to the network. Cross-referencing the data she finally found a name. "Whoa. Yatzhee." She punched her phone to call Morgan.

"Hey, Baby girl. What do you have?"

"Something, but it isn't...I don't know for sure, Morgan. I've found beheadings as far back as records go that I can access. I think if we were to look at paper records we could go back further..."

"Garcia."

She tried to focus. "Right, right. Sorry. I found this family, well, a guy that's sort of his own family. I think. You have to see the pictures to believe it. I'm sending them to you." She hit a few keys and sat back to wait of him to tell her thanks, but the phone just hung up. "Morgan? Morgan?" She tapped her phone buttons. "Reid, you had better pick up."

* * *

Morgan stared at the photo on his phone and then stared at Duncan, who was standing next to the open door of the car where Joe was sitting. "Damn." He hung up on Garcia without saying anything as he eased towards them as they were watching Reid work on a map spread on the hood of their car. "You want to explain this?"

Reid's phone rang as Duncan grimaced at the pictures on Morgan's phone.

Joe sighed and turned his arm to show his little tattoo again. "It's complicated."

Reid was hurriedly talking to someone when he suddenly pulled his phone away from his ear. "Garcia!"

Morgan turned and kept one eye on Duncan as he took the phone from Reid. "Sorry about before...Where?" He threw Reid his phone and watched Duncan catch it as Reid fumbled it. "Call Prentiss." He turned towards Joe. "You're coming along. Both of you."

* * *

Prentiss held Rossi down. "You are staying here."

Rossi kept trying to sit up. "Hotch needs us."

"You can help keep him occupied once we get him here. Meantime, you stay still and do what the nurses say."

He collapsed back with a sigh. "Fine. You win."

She smiled at him. "Easier that way." With a pat to Rossi's shoulder Prentiss hurried out of the hospital.

* * *

Methos groaned and tried to control his breathing. "Just set it."

Hotch prodded the break. "What does he want?"

Appreciating the attempt to distract him, but not really up to falling for it, Methos snorted. "You heard us."

"Doesn't mean I understood what you were saying." Hotch glanced up at him and shoved.

Methos' head swam for a few seconds and he heard Hotch's quiet exclamation as a far away thing as pain shot up his leg as the bone set and healed. He opened his eyes to Hotch staring at him. "I need to get loose."

"Before he figures out you are Immortal." He sounded hesitant.

Methos dropped his head back to rest on the support beam he was tied to. "Something like that. Please, just get these things off."

"It looks like he melted the knot." Hotch started trying to slip the nylon rope up, but Willis had snaked it under and over Methos' arms. "He put it through a drilled hole in the beam. We can't just stand you up and slip them off."

Methos glanced up as the floor over them creaked. "I hate smart nutcases."

Hotch got this little smile on his face that Methos thought probably passed as his version of a smile. "He at least agreed to call your friend."

"Yeah, well, MacLeod might not catch on."

Hotch stopped pulling as Methos winched. "Sorry."

"It's okay. Keep trying."

They froze as the bolts of the door at the top of the stairs where thrown.

* * *

Prentiss hung on Duncan's arm and smiled with a vacant expression as the door opened. She opened her mouth to start conning the guy that answered the door when his eyes widened.

"Oh! Come in, come in."

Glancing back over her shoulder at Morgan sitting with Joe in Duncan's car across the street, Prentiss hoped she wasn't about to get a civilian killed. She was happy her weapon was a solid weight at the small of her back.

"I can't believe I'm meeting you! When the Watcher said you would be willing to teach me...I mean, I hadn't..." The man rung his hands. "What should we do first?"

Prentiss watched Duncan smoothly stir the man back towards the front door. She blinked. He wasn't scared at all. She waited until Duncan was in midsentence about having her and the man spar to see his level of training before she pulled her weapon. "FBI. Where is he?"

The man just smiled at her. That sort of crazy smile that she'd seen on many a serial killer's face. The sort that said they thought they couldn't be beat.

"Mortals." He turned his head to invite Duncan into it. "Aren't they adorable?"

Duncan smiled charmingly. "Sometimes. She's just worried about my Watcher." Then he stepped in between them just as the man whipped a gun up and fired. Prentiss dove sideways as Duncan fell into the man, taking them both to the floor. She moved forward and kicked the weapon out of the way and trained her weapon at the man's head as he just smiled at her. Duncan was dead, staring at nothing.

"Damn it." Prentiss waited until Morgan and Reid burst through the door. As Morgan kept his weapon trained on their killer, she gently rolled Duncan over.

Reid knelt next to them. "Let's hope Garcia was right."

She looked at him. "What?"

He stood up. "We'll clear the house and see if we can find Hotch."

Prentiss followed numbly. "What are you talking about?"

Reid cleared the kitchen and tried the door that looked like it lead to the basement. "Garcia sent Morgan pictures of a guy that looked like MacLeod that went back to around 1900." Reid looked around and moved to a small jar on a nearby shelf. Shaking out a key from the jar, Reid went back to the door and unlocked both deadbolts. "I'm thinking maybe...Got it." He swung the door open and she raised her weapon. "Hotch?"

"Down here!"

* * *

Morgan was pissed as he went to tell Joe they'd gotten Duncan killed. "Sir."

Joe narrowed his eyes. "Don't sir me. Help me up."

Morgan gave him a hand and didn't try to stop him as he headed for the house. The uniforms were putting Willis, their unsub, in a police car. Joe ignored that and went inside, carefully stepping over Duncan's body.

Prentiss was leading Hotch and Reid had another man by the arm from the kitchen. Morgan frowned at Hotch, who was rumpled and had a gash on his forehead. Prentiss broke away from Hotch to approach Joe.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't expect him to step into our lines of fire like that."

The rumpled man snorted. "Well, that's the boy scout for you." He let Joe wrap him in a hug. "Hey, Joe."

"You idiot." Joe pulled back and thumped the man in the arm. "What the hell were you thinking, Adam?"

"I got tased, Joe. That always sucks."

There was a groan from the floor and Prentiss stumbled to sit down as Duncan coughed.

Morgan stared. "Jesus."

Adam just kicked Duncan's foot. "Not as much as getting shot though. Get up, Mac. The FBI would like an explanation."

* * *

Garcia bounced as her people drug themselves into the office. "Well? Was I right?" She accepted the hug and whispered apology from Morgan and the pat on the shoulder from Rossi as they past her. Reid stopped in front of her.

"Right about what, Garcia?"

Garcia grinned. "That the guy, MacLeod, has been inheriting from himself for generations."

Reid smiled at her. "You'll have to ask him yourself." He moved and she was suddenly face to face with the handsome man from the pictures she's dug up.

"Oh."

He smiled at her and Garcia felt herself smiling back. Then the spell was broken as a slim man hit Duncan with his elbow.

"Quit it, Mac. Joe needs to sit down."

Hotch maneuvered around them and turned to look back at them as he reached Garcia. "I'm sure you need to sit as well, Adam." He raised his special Eyebrow of Doom at them. Then he turned and led the way towards the conference room.

Garcia followed, happy that everyone had come home safely.


End file.
